spanky - Thanx for the kind words man. :D I'm glad I helped you out. What you do sounds good to me, especially the jam tracks. That's a really good way to practice and learn how to use them when playing. Here's what I do.
When I was learning new scales, I started them off like you did. Learning them up and down the fretboard. But to take it a step farther cause learning a scale usually only takes some much time, and if you've been playing for years it's hard to take time playing all your scales plus doing all that for each scale. What I generally do is play all my scale with the same root, and change the root daily. So one day I'll play all the scales I know in C, then the next day maybe E. This will keep you from playing each scale from every root every day. Which undoubtively will take a long frickin time. By just rotating roots you will spend less time on scales (which should only be 15-20 minutes a day) and plus better learn what really matters when learning a scale. Which is it's tonality. That's how you always look at scales, by the sound you get from playing them. You could play a major scale from any root, and the "major sounding" effect is still the same. So the root isn't what your paying all that much attention to, it's the succession of notes in the scale and it's sound (tonality). So it's almost a waste of time to spend extra time playing the same scale just with different roots. Instead work on the tonality of each scale. And this is more apparent when all your scales are starting with the same root. The difference is much more clearer than if you were to do all of the scale 12 times each. That's just too much to grasp in one day, blah!
Also, try different ways of practicing your scales. This will help keep you from getting bored with the same routine and ultimately for better challenging yourself. The only way to get better. Here's 2 other ways to practice scales.
1. Try playing scale legato style. Legato style is playing with just hammer-ons and pull-offs. There are two really good benefits from this style. One is finger strength, because it requires you to use your fingers strenght to sound each note rather than a pick. This is the old way of strenghten your fingers, before the grip-master. Second is it can be hella difficult if your not used to this style. The ascending hammer-ons are quite easy, but the pull-off descending is somewhat challenging. It requires you to have your finger in position beforehand, rather than as you go.
2. Play all the notes in the scale as triads. Example, if you were playing an A major scale. You would play an A major chord, then B minor, then C# minor, and so on. This is great for theory knowledge cause it really gets you to understand the scale you are practicing beyond just it's finger pattern. You really learn the tonality in this exercise. *Note : make sure you look at how each scale is built with these type of chords. If you don't know how just ask me. Also, play these scales as broken arpeggios (broken arpeggios are just broken maj/min chords). Here's a tabbed example of A major.
e:-------------------------------------
b:-------------------------------------
g:-------------------------------------
d:------2-----4---2-6---4-7-and so on.-
a:--0-4---2-5---4-----5----------------
e:-------------------------------------
Play these as triplets with your metronome.
Point is always find ways to challenge yourself so you don't get bored with the endless routine of practicing scales. Latr
"My whole life is a dark room...ONE BIG DARK ROOM" - a.f.i.